Towards Mass Individualisation: setting the scope and industrial implication

Within the last few years, a need for renewed product personalisation has been observed in some markets such as consumer electronics, fashion to meet the exact demands of the customers. Product customisation emphasises the fulfilment of explicit requirements of a defined market segment, but product...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Design Science 2021-01, Vol.7, Article e16
Main Authors: Sikhwal, Ravi K, Childs, Peter R N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
collaborative design
Customers
Customization
Designers
Empowerment
Innovations
Mass customisation
Mass individualisation
Modules
open platform products
Paradigms
Product design
product design innovation
Product development
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Summary:Within the last few years, a need for renewed product personalisation has been observed in some markets such as consumer electronics, fashion to meet the exact demands of the customers. Product customisation emphasises the fulfilment of explicit requirements of a defined market segment, but product individualisation targets at satisfying the particular needs of a customer. Mass Individualisation (MI) is a new product design approach comprising of an open hardware platform and multiple modules to be integrated with the platform. It gives freedom to end-users to integrate different modules into the platform as per their choice. Technological and strategic integration of all actors involved in the design process is the primary focus of this research. This paper identifies key areas which need to be focussed on to realise this approach and convert it into an industrial practice by an explorative study of existing product design and customisation approaches. An industrial survey was conducted, and results for the industrial implication and insights on this approach are presented. The findings show that the end product from product design for MI will be more creative and innovative by the networking of all actors, and offers more individualised and technologically advanced products.
ISSN:2053-4701
2053-4701
DOI:10.1017/dsj.2021.18